1. Field of the Invention
This invention is about power transmission: more specifically, a steplessly variable power transmission. Although this invention can apply to more than half of all power driven machines it is discussed here in context with automobile power transmission.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
There is currently no way to efficiently correlate the natural laws of inertia with the art of a stepless automobile transmission. Unsuccessful efforts to invent a serviceable transmission have been continuous since the first automobile was produced. These efforts include numerous arrangements of the friction clutch method, along with endless variations of the cone method. The present invention is based on a unique and new principle, with no suggestion of precedent in the transmission annals. The low efficacy of all conventional power transmissions contribute more to air pollution and fuel shortage than does anything else. The inertial resistance to instant change of the velocity of a particle is so severe that no velocity change can occur in nature unless the change is stepless: regardless of the velocities involved. To name an instance, a drag racing vehicle makes its own stepless transmission by wasting energy at the spinning wheels. All conventional power transmissions must have a designed method of waste in order to be stepless enough to work. If the waste does not occur in a slipping power train then it occurs in the engine cylinders, via pressure variation that reduces the input torque and releases unburned carbon into the air. This condition is visible when a heavy truck is attempting to force acceleration with power glut, along with much shifting and double clutching. In this instance the exhaust contains more carbon than the engine is burning. Stepless change of motion is enigmatic in that it can be said if the change is stepless, it does not occur at all: and velocity is increased without the event of inertial resistance. Regardless of the enigma, it is sufficiently observable that stepless power transmission nearly neutralizes inertial resistance, whereas the conventional transmission, occurring in steps, creates inertial resistance that must be overcome with added input power. That is to say, barring gravity (hills and friction), it can be said that the manner in which a load is moved determines the load.
When conventional transmissions use a fluid action torque converter reduction gearing multiplies the torque that is delivered by the converter turbine. Starting the motion of a vehicle in the relatively high ratio of three to one underdrive, or low gear, is impossible without some form of slip-waste built into the system.
When the conventional transmission is in a one to one, or high gear, mode there is no gearing to multiply the turbine torque, and if the turbine is efficiently coupled and turning as fast as the input driven pump the turbine provides very little driving torque. Whereas, when acceleration is attempted in high gear, and more inertial resistance cuts in accordingly, acceleration is indeed sluggish. And, this is accomplished by an extreme power glut which is necessary to increase the converter pump RPMs ahead of the turbine RPMs enough to generate some torque to change the vehicle velocity. Since typical driving conditions require frequent acceleration in high gear, it is shown to be a very wasteful factor.
It seems to be a well perpetuated secret that the number of vehicles in use is NOT the irreversible cause of air pollution and the energy problems now existing. The problem is related to the make shift machines that are only half doing the transmission job.
Another impediment to solving the fuel and pollution problem is the resistance to change on the part of established producers. For the most part, due to the mental strain and the material costs of retooling. This resistance is fortified by the irresponsibility that is inherent to the fashionable, short term thinking.
A driving engine puts out mechanical energy in the form of torque and RPMs. The RPMs in the upper three-quarters of the engine range are subject to a degree of operator control by the variation of the fuel input, or acceleration, but the engine torque is not subject to operator variation or control, except as it naturally relates to the RPMs. The conventional systems of automobile power transmission provide the operator with a workable range of speed selection but are seriously lacking in the ability to provide an efficient output drive. The output load is composed mostly of inertial and gravity resistance and the driving torque requirements for a given speed, or change of speed, varies nearly continuously. That is, the most efficient torque to RPM ratio varies almost constantly. The number of useful torque to RPM ratios within a common range of driving conditions is infinite, but a conventional power transmission can only provide three or four torque to RPM ratios. Therefore, the ratio is seldom correct in an efficient manner. The vehicle cannot move without sufficient torque, so the engine must supply excess fuel and power which, most of the time, is wasted into the air as pollution and heat. This power glut has an adverse effect on engine combustion, thereby exhausting more unburned carbon.
Conventional power transmission does not have the low and stepless ratios to handle the starting loads of extensive and permanent over-drive gearing. Whereas, a vehicle with a conventional transmission, driving on gentle terrain and at cruising speeds, is using only a fraction of the input power generated by the engine because the output, with its range limited to a one to one ratio and carrying little, if any, inertial and gravity loads cannot digest the energy that is essentially generated by an engine that is forced, by the absence of overdrive gearing, to rotate as fast as the output. This excess combustion, along with the associated low quality burn that is due to low pressure, contributes substantially to excess fuel use and that is the major cause of air pollution.
With the present invention acceleration is efficiently accomplished by the smooth and stepless upward change of the ratio while the input RPMs is appropriately increased at the same time. The conventional transmission accelerates by glutting the system with input torque, in one ratio, to get output RPMs up to a speed that reduces the inertial resistance enough for the next higher ratio to handle the load. The same highly inefficient process is repeated two or three more times.
The following analogy, while possibly incorrect in measure, is definitely correct in principle: a hypothetical automobile is equipped with a one ratio, or low gear, transmission. Barring speed, it could do everything a conventional transmission does, but with a lower degree of efficacy. The performance and efficiency of the present invention, that is the steplessly variable power transmission, is advanced over the conventional three or four ratio transmission in an equal amount as in the hypothetical situation.
The public is not yet aware that the major source of air pollution and excess fuel use is due to the primitive state of the power transmission art and its secondary influence on the engine combustion. But, it is well known to those truly skilled in the art and it is also known that a good stepless transmission can reduce the fuel use and pollution, per mile ratio, by at least fifty percent. A recent unsuccessful effort to produce a serviceable stepless power transmission was based on the German patent of Manfred Koser. Koser's work involved the very old cone system. More specifically, the method used cones back to back, generally called the split pulley, to vary the pitch diameter of the driving, and driven pulleys to vary the input to output ratio. The latest portion of red herring served up by supporting magazines is that the transmission is okay, but it makes too much noise.
The stepless hydraulic system with a variable pump driving a hydraulic motor is serviceable in low speed applications such as some types of construction equipment. A high RPM hydraulic motor that can also provide starting torque requires the movement of more fluid than is practical in automobile power transmission.
The state of the art in railroad power transmission involves a combustion power source that is delivered to the output via electric motors that provide a magnetic type starting torque that is related to the electric output of a diesel driven generator. Nothing in the transmission can devise a low enough ratio for one engine to start the train so two, three, or four engines are hauled about in useless tow for the occasional event of producing enough torque to start the train in a relatively high ratio.
The present invention provides infinitely low ratios and can start any train with the same power source that pulls it at high speeds. This can eliminate the use of more than fifty percent of the engines now in rail service.
The power transmission producers throughout the industrial world refer to conventional planetary transmissions and stick shift truck transmissions as efficient machines. And, they look to engines and other red herring sectors to reduce fuel use and air pollution. A rudimentary understanding of inertia and the data contained in this application provides the basis to prove that the conventional power transmission is, in fact, the culprit that is responsible for more fuel waste and air pollution than all other industrial factors combined.